The New Oxford Book of English Prose

This book--unique in its international scope--gathers together those rare jewels of the English language that take plain prose to artistic heights. Beginning with Sir Thomas Malory and ending with Kazuo Ishiguro, this anthology chronologically traces the evolution of prose. It shows how it gained confidence and extended its range in the late seventeenth century, and then how, in the eighteenth century, it dispensed with the ornate style of literary giants like Milton and Donne in favor of more concise and compact modern style. The material included in this anthology is literary, but literary, as the editor states in the introduction, is not the narrow term that it is often made to beit embraces an enormous range of experience and response. The New Oxford Book of English Prose pays tribute to literature's vibrant diversity by offering glimpses of master craftsmanship from around the globe. Included here are excerpts from writers of such varied backgrounds as Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Vladimir Nabokov, and Mulk Raj Anand. From the eloquent political treatises of Burke to the bold narrative strokes of Herman Melville, readers will find that the selections contained within this volume superbly illustrate the expressive powers of prose